From the National Fatherhood Initiative:

"You can't be the kind of father you want to be. You can't be the kind of father you wanted to have. You've got to be the kind of father your children need you to be."

-- Roland Warren, President of NFI

Good Advice for Daughters (or anyone, for that matter)

A former co-worker posted a list he put together of 100 pieces of advice for [his] daughters, copied below as a mirror of good advice. While I don't quite agree 100% with all 100 (I'd swap coffee and clothing in #83), there's a lot of good here.

1. Practice being a good listener. Nothing will gain you more respect nor teach you more patience than to be an active listener. Look people in the eye and truly listen to them.
2. When you know more than the other person, don’t let on. It’s better to appear amazed by what they know than to seem like a know-it-all.
3. Be careful in choosing your friends. Often they will be your greatest source of support, even more than family. Be wary of their advice. Never follow blindly. Question your friends, and if they are truly your friends, they will respect you for doing so.
4. You do not need a man to validate your worth.
5. Love is a fickle thing, and I certainly cannot give expert testimony on the subject, but I do know this: honest communication is very important.
6. Bad things happen to EVERYONE. It’s how we react to them that matters.
7. Shun drugs of any kind. We should experience life unfiltered.
8. When you’re right, no one will remember. When you’re wrong, no one will forget. Deal with it.
9. Be suspicious of the motives of government and organizations. If it has a treasurer, think carefully before joining it. Our government, though manned by many well-intentioned people, is structurally flawed and morally unsound. There’s really little hope to change it. In fact:
10. Avoid politics. You’ll be happier just living your life and shunning partisan rhetoric.
11. Exercise regularly and make it a part of your everyday life. When you have nothing, when you feel like you can’t go on, physical exercise can pull you through many problems.
12. Study hard at two things: writing a coherent sentence and speaking in public. Once you’re in the real world trying to get a job, it’s not what you know that matters, but how well you can communicate.
13. Learn the rules of grammar so you avoid embarrassing mistakes. People judge us by the way we speak, and proper language is a lost art. Don’t make mistakes concerning “your” and “you’re”, “too” and “to”, and the like. Don’t be THAT person.
14. Find something that satisfies your creative urges. This is critical to happiness. If you can make a living doing this, all the better.
15. Refrain from killing any living thing.
16. When standing in line, let the two people behind you go ahead. Make this a habit.
17. Wherever you are, however much time you can give: volunteer.
18. Never fuss over housework. Obsession with cleanliness is a waste of time. We all end up in the same place – covered in dirt.
19. Don’t ever stay with a man who hits you. Or cheats on you.
20. Ask old people to tell you their stories.
21. No rich person has ever built anything. Every thing of wonder ever built by mankind was built by the lower class and working class. The Empire State Building was built by immigrants, the Great Wall of China was built by surfs and soldiers, and the Great Pyramids of Egypt were built by slaves. When possible, gather around the working class and find out how they accomplish amazing things.
22. Whatever you are spending time thinking about, you are becoming.
23. Have the courage to go to a movie alone.
24. Remember that harboring a resentment is like swallowing poison and waiting for the other person to die.
25. Find a spiritual path that works for you and practice it. I’d suggest it have practical steps and tools that you can apply to your life. Blind faith, without practice, is not a spiritual path.
26. Happiness comes from inside YOU, not from external factors.
27. Learn how to do simple household repairs, this will save you lots of time and money, and give you something to with your idle weekends.
28. Read.
29. Don’t crack your knuckles or bite your fingernails in public.
30. Try never to borrow money, but lend it freely if you can afford to never see it again.
31. Match your belt and shoes.
32. Avoid caffiene.
33. Make sure to move away from your hometown at least twice.
34. If you must drink alcohol, never drink it at a work function.
35. Listen to the Beatles, Ray Charles, and Johnny Cash.
36. At their very core, there isn’t a bit of difference between the two major political parties in America.
37. If you’re entertaining company, don’t allow yourself to be distracted by “gadgets” – turn off your phone and other devices. Be PRESENT with the people you are with.
38. Learn to iron and enjoy the simplicity of it. You’ll look nice, too.
39. Surround yourself with people who are funny.
40. Don’t indulge in sex for just the pleasure of it. Have standards and discriminate.
41. Read Huckleberry Finn, Robinson Crusoe, and other classics that intrigue you.
42. When it comes to learning history, don’t worry so much about when and where and who, but learn why events occurred and what it means.
43. Never accept a job based on money. And don’t marry for it.
44. Be advised that much of our history is the story of man’s inhumanity to his fellow man. Racial and religious intolerance is a big deal, for example.
45. Never drive when you can walk.
46. When it comes to humor, leave people wanting more.
47. The simplest explanation is often the most likely.
48. If you become an aunt, be the aunt who always sends a birthday card.
49. Paying taxes is not patriotic. Neither is waving a flag or wearing a red, white and blue hat.
50. Speaking of that, symbols are generally bullshit.
51. Hold hands.
52. Speak up for yourself, because rarely will anyone else do it for you. But be humble.
53. The bigger your head is, the easier it is to fill your shoes.
54. If someone steals the credit, or you fail to get the credit you deserve, don’t mention it. Get over it.
55. Every once in a while wear pretty bows and ribbons in your hair.
56. When you kiss, touch a part of the other person’s face with your hand.
57. Travel as much as you can, especially when you’re young.
58. Don’t believe in conspiracy theories. They require coordinated effort and disciplined silence that most people don’t possess.
59. Shun television as much as possible. This will be difficult, but your mind will be better for it.
60. Learn two or three clean jokes that you can tell if you’re asked to make a speech or toast for any occasion.
61. In regards to speeches: be brief.
62. If the dorkiest boy in the class asks you to dance, politely thank him, and then dance with the poor fellow.
63. Recognize that just because people may have been in jail or prison, if they have paid their dues, they deserve a second chance. We all make mistakes.
64. Having said that, consult your mother and father before dating a felon.
65. Be advised that if you ever meet your heroes, you’ll probably be disappointed.
66. Rarely is anything crucial. When faced with a difficult decision, take time before acting. No harm in giving it another day, week, or month. Sometimes the best action is no action.
67. When in a serious relationship: commit.
68. Don’t burn bridges. You never know when you’ll see someone again.
69. Have the strength to ask for help. This is so important.
70. Build a reputation of being someone who can be counted on.
71. As soon as you can, when you start to earn money, have some of it automatically withheld and deposited in an investment account. Do this and you will be astounded by the accumulation of compounded interest.
72. Be prompt.
73. Don’t wear a lot of makeup.
74. Don’t look at people as if they are good or bad. We are all good and bad.
75. Don’t scream at or hit your children, a parent shouldn’t be feared. A parent should be a safe haven to a child.
76. Always do these three things for your children: open your home to them, loan them money, tell them the brutal truth.
77. Make loud sandwiches with crunchy things on them, like potato chips, celery, and fresh onions.
78. Avoid using the word “um” and other forms of lazy speech.
79. Speaking of that, there’s nothing wrong with a pause in conversation.
80. When you act like a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
81. Don’t play video games.
82. When it comes to relationships don’t proceed based on arbitrary timelines. If it’s the right chair, it doesn’t take long to get comfortable in it.
83. Three luxuries it’s okay to spend money on: travel, clothing, and pastry. Three luxuries you shouldn’t spend a lot of money on: cars, gadgets, coffee.
84. Good: calling your mother and father once a week. Better: sending a handwritten note to your parents for no reason. Best: including your parents in one of your favorite activities.
85. Write handwritten notes, you’ll be remembered for it because no one else does.
86. Don’t be one of those people who hates to have your picture taken.
87. Once you think you’ve got it figured out, you’ve stopped living.
88. Give compliments – to people you know and to total strangers.
89. When you’re at a party and confronted with someone you just met, don’t ask “What do you do?” It’s a lazy question. Ask them what their favorite book is, or where they last went swimming, anything but “What do you do?” Avoid answering if someone asks you.
90. Don’t read beauty and advice magazines. Read the Beatitudes from Jesus, it’s in the Bible.
91. Love your sisters and brothers, someday they may let you live in their guest bedroom.
92. Try to make sure you have a few thousand dollars stashed away somewhere for an emergency.
93. Don’t cover hardwood floors with rugs.
94. For some stretch of time use public transportation. It teaches patience, reliance on others, and affords you a chance to see some interesting characters.
95. Apologize swiftly and move on.
96. If the person who loves you doesn’t have your back, move your back.
97. Take care of your teeth.
98. Avoid cliches: in written word, in speech, and in deed.
99. Be more concerned with your character than your reputation.
100. Live every day like it’s going to be your last day, because one day you’re going to be right.

Politician Buttons

From an article talking about elevator "door close" buttons and similar things that often do nothing, I found this user comment humorous:

my father calls the "walk" buttons at traffic lights, "politician buttons". I never understood the answer, and thus the joke, as a child... went something like this:

Dad: "why do you always press the politician button?"
Me: "why do you always call it a politician button?"
Dad: "because it does nothing."

Though I'd argue too many analogues of the "politician buttons" still do things -- like give people a "walk" sign while perpendicular vehicular traffic gets a green light.

Capitalist Fortune Cookie?

Yesterday I cracked open a fortune cookie that read:

"A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well."

Axelrod's Careless Myths Section (or was it?)

Apparently even Huffington Post is jumping on Axelrod for the poorly worded "myths about health insurance reform" section on his email the other day:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/blaise-nutter/axelrods-wh-email-truth-a_b_258634.html

Though some of them could also be conceived to be cleverly disguised ways of saying something in a way so as not to say what they really mean. Like this one:

7. You can keep your own insurance: It's myth that reform will force you out of your current insurance plan or force you to change doctors. To the contrary, reform will expand your choices, not eliminate them.

Maybe he really does mean that "You can keep your own insurance" is a myth and that the full explanation would be something more like: "It's myth that reform will force you out of your current insurance plan or force you to change doctors [for the first couple years]. To the contrary, reform will expand your choices [at first], not eliminate them [until a few years down the road].

Or this one:

1. Reform will stop "rationing" -- not increase it: It's a myth that reform will mean a "government takeover" of health care or lead to "rationing." To the contrary, reform will forbid many forms of rationing that are currently being used by insurance companies.

Should the full explanation be: "It's a myth that reform will mean a "government takeover" of health care or lead to "rationing" [because we'll just use different words that mean the same thing to describe it]. To the contrary, reform will forbid many forms of rationing that are currently being used by insurance companies [and put even stronger forms of rationing in their place]."?

What I Do for a Living

Every now and then people ask me what I do. When I tell them I'm an IT Project Manager, they then want to know what my days are like. Usually something like this comes to mind:



I see somebody else has captured this feeling too:


(from http://www.code-muse.com/blog/?p=27)

Yes, it's been one of those days today...

Turnberry Makes Like Buster Douglas

It was amazing to watch Tiger Woods struggle today in the British Open and miss the cut, something I imagine nobody thought possible just a couple days ago. Watching it reminded me of the night when I was a kid, together with my friends, watching the unstoppable Mike Tyson get knocked out by the unknown Buster Douglas. A couple sports moments that were virtually unpredictable. Hopefully Tiger fares better the rest of his career than Iron Mike did, however.

Ma'am is OK Again

So it appears we're in the clear to resume calling Senator Barbara Boxer ma'am again...compare:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE_jGD5nZ6U

versus:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT9YA-xCihk

Something tells me it's more than a preference for being called "Senator" rather than "Ma'am", but you make the call.

Obama's Commandments

From the Patriot Update, with original here:

I. Thou shalt have no God in America, except for me. For we are no longer a Christian nation and, after all, I am the chosen One. (And like God, I do not have a birth certificate.) SOURCE

II. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, unless it is my face carved on Mt. Rushmore. SOURCE

III. Thou shalt not utter my middle name in vain (or in public). Only I can say Barack Hussein Obama. SOURCE

IV. Remember tax day, April 15th, to keep it holy. SOURCE

V. Honour thy father and thy mother until they are too old and sick to care for. They will cost our public-funded health-care system too much money. SOURCE

VI. Thou shalt not kill, unless you have an unwanted, unborn baby. For it would be an abomination to punish your daughter with a baby. SOURCE

VII. Thou shalt not commit adultery if you are conservative or a Republican. Liberals and Democrats are hereby forgiven for all of their infidelity and immorality, but the careers of conservatives will be forever destroyed. SOURCE

VIII. Thou shalt not steal, until you've been elected to public office. Only then is it acceptable to take money from hard-working, successful citizens and give it to those who do not work, illegal immigrants, or those who do not have the motivation to better their own lives. SOURCE

IX. Thou shalt not discriminate against thy neighbor unless they are conservative, Caucasian, or Christian. SOURCE

X. Thou shalt not covet because it is simply unnecessary. I will place such a heavy tax burden on those that have achieved the American Dream that, by the end of my term as President, nobody will have any wealth or material goods left for you to covet. SOURCE

Not sure I can add much to the above, other than that it does seem to be increasingly conflict-inducing to espouse and express the Catholic values I was brought up with. I guess having more left-leaning friends is a side-effect of spending many of my adult years in New York City before "voting with my feet" and heading south. How to explain to those who relate more to the above 10 than our Lord's 10 that taxation should not be a means to charity and murder is not a valid choice.

Oprah Oops

So there was this:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2009-01-18-oprah-rosenblat_N.htm

How long until we have an Oprah Obama Oops? They can even recycle the last line of the article:

"I'm so tired of you being the whipping boy for this hoax, because he didn't just dupe you -- he duped a lot of people."

Ideological? Who Me?

Glenn Beck sums up the misleading usage of ideological and pragmatic that we hear so much about these days:

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/20408/

How about some honesty...let's both present our ideologies, figure out where we agree and disagree, and work out a decent solution, rather than just belittling the other side. So many opinions deemed "evil" or "hateful" by the other side are just logical extensions of a difference in assumptions earlier up the chain of argument. Maybe if we unraveled each others arguments to understand them, we'd be better off than just conveniently labeling others.

More Quotes

A wise assessment to remember in these trying economic times:

"A nation trying to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to pick himself up by the handle." -- Winston Churchill

The elitism is dripping off this one:

"I don't mean this will happen tomorrow, I know that the majority (of British people) are still opposed, but there is a period of consideration underway and the people which matter in Britain are currently thinking about it." -- European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso (http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=081130204959.yq2a770m&show_article=1)

...and I thought "the people which matter" in a democratic society are the entire general population.

A few great quotes from our Founding Fathers, great men who if they were alive today would sadly be mocked and reviled as religious nutjobs:

"And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever." -- Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 18, 1781

"It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favors." -- George Washington, Thanksgiving Proclamation, 3 October 1789

"It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage, and such only, as he believes to be acceptable to him. This duty is precedent both in order of time and degree of obligation, to the claims of Civil Society. Before any man can be considered as a member of Civil Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe." -- James Madison, A Memorial and Remonstrance, 1785

-1 for Socialism

Another lesson on the pitfalls of socialism / nationalizing private business:

Fannie, AIG Struggling After Federal Takeover on washingtonpost.com

Though we could have predicted that by looking at history. How about we work on privatizing more government programs instead and letting competition work. Potentially painful? Yes. But the markets have a better chance of picking the best solution than the government, which seems to specialize in putting down layers of ineffective inefficiencies.

Again With the "Rights" that Aren't Rights

Some good points from Thomas Sowell on gay "marriage" in this townhall.com article.

Revive Reagan!

No, not Republicans that just say they're like Reagan, we really need somebody like this to emerge strongly in 2012:

Karl Marx is Not the Father of Capitalism on townhall.com
Inside Ronald Reagan on reason.com

Problematic Permissive Parenting?

A liberal acquaintance of mine started a blog with a first post that I'm guessing (hoping) is somewhat tongue-in-cheek:

When you have kids every toilet in the house has yellow water in it and sometimes worse. Basically I have given up telling the kids to flush. I just go in behind them and do it.

Great, let's train our kids at an early age that somebody will take care of you and walk behind you to fix your messes all the time. Sure, it's hard and exhausting and frustrating, but if parents don't teach their kids how to behave, who will? First they don't want to flush the toilet, then they expect easy A's at school, then they don't want to fix their mistakes at work, then they'll expect the government to pick them up. Hmmm, then again, maybe those are the lessons liberal parents are trying to teach their children.

What if 'SNL' mocked Michelle Obama?

There are lots of articles about the double standard in the media these days, but I particularly liked this one:

Patrick J Buchanan on WorldNetDaily

Inconvenient (for Democrats) Truths about the Iraq War (and others)

This came as a forward in email and provides some good historical perspective...

John Glenn (DEMOCRAT) said this ----- It should make us all think a little:

There were 39 combat related killings in Iraq in January. In the fair city of Detroit there were 35 murders in the month of January. That's just one American city, about as deadly as the entire war-torn country of Iraq .



When some claim that President Bush shouldn't have started this war, tell them the following :



FDR (DEMOCRAT) led us into World War II. Germany never attacked us; Japan did. From 1941-1945, 450,000 lives were lost ... an average of 112,500 per year.



Truman (DEMOCRAT) finished that war and started one in Korea . North Korea never attacked us. From 1950-1953, 55,000 lives were lost ... an average of 18,334 per year.



John F. Kennedy (DEMOCRAT) started the Vietnam conflict in 1962. Vietnam never attacked us.



Johnson (DEMOCRAT) turned Vietnam into a quagmire. From 1965-1975, 58,000 lives were lost ... an average of 5,800 per year.



Clinton (DEMOCRAT) went to war in Bosnia without UN or French consent. Bosnia never attacked us. He was offered Osama bin Laden's head on a platter three times by Sudan and did nothing. Osama has attacked us on multiple occasions.

This one is a fact that makes me mad as hell.


In the years since terrorists attacked us, President Bush has liberated two countries, crushed the Taliban, crippled al-Qaida, put nuclear inspectors in Libya, Iran, and, North Korea without firing a shot, and captured a terrorist who slaughtered 300,000 of his own people. And the Democrats are complaining about how long the war is taking.

But Wait, There's more.



It took less time to take Iraq than it took Janet Reno (DEMOCRAT) to take the Branch Davidian compound. That was a 51-day operation



We've been looking for evidence for chemical weapons in Iraq for less time than it took Hillary Clinton (DEMOCRAT) to find the Rose law firm billing records.





It took less time for the 3rd Infantry Division and the Marines to destroy the Medina Republican Guard than it took Ted Kennedy to call the police after his Oldsmobile sank at Chappaquiddick.

It took less time to take Iraq than it took to count the votes in Florida !!!

Our Commander-In-Chief is doing a GREAT JOB! The Military morale is high!
The biased media hopes we are too ignorant to realize the facts.
But Wait ....There's more!

JOHN GLENN (on the Senate floor - January 26, 2004)

Some people still don't understand why military personnel do what they do for a living. This exchange between Senators John Glenn and Senator Howard Metzenbaum is worth reading. Not only is it a pretty impressive impromptu speech, but it's also a good example of one man's explanation of why men and women in the armed services do what they do for a living.



This IS a typical, though sad, example of what some who have never served think of the military.

Senator Metzenbaum (speaking to Senator Glenn):
'How can you run for Senate when you've never held a real job?'

Senator Glenn (D-Ohio): 'I served 23 years in the United States Marine Corps. I served through two wars. I flew 149 missions. My plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire on 12 different occasions. I was in the space program. It wasn't my checkbook, Howard; it was my life on the line. It was not a nine-to-five job, where I took time off to take the daily cash receipts to the bank. I ask you to go with me, as I went the other day . .. to a veteran's hospital and look those men ... with their mangled bodies ... in the eye, and tell THEM they didn't hold a job!




You go with me to the Space Program at NASA and go, as I have gone, to the widows and orphans of Ed White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee .. and you look those kids in the eye and tell them that their DAD'S didn't hold a job.



You go with me on Memorial Day and you stand in Arlington National Cemetery , where I have more friends buried than I'd like to remember, and you watch those waving flags . You stand there, and you think about this nation, and you have the gall to tell ME that those people didn't have a job?
What about Metzenbaum? For those who don't remember During W.W.II, Howard Metzenbaum was an attorney representing the Communist Party in the USA .

Now he's a Senator!

If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you are reading it in English thank a Veteran.

Pro-Rape?

Given the moral relativism in our world, will this be the new "alternative lifestyle" and "right to choose" someday?

You're walking down the street one day with five friends and you see a woman being raped...
by Coffee Catholic

Obama the Tax Man



Ahh, the old faux-retail-sale strategy...mark up the price $1.00, then put up a big sign saying $0.50 off and hand out coupons for $0.25 off...

My only question is, why didn't the McCain campaign make this ad? Or at least make this point during the second debate?